Hi Brittany!
I don't have any official training materials, but I'd still love to offer some advice!
This is an issue I've been having with our volunteers as well, and it's definitely a process teaching them how to handle those situations. One of the things that I've done is talked about how to redirect misbehaving energy into something productive/educational. I work at a military museum, so we have a ton of cool artifacts that kids get very excited and disruptive about. One of the major things that kids react to are our weapons displays. When a volunteer is giving a tour to a group and sees that the kids are distracted by our weapons and getting disruptive, they know to read their audience and change their tour to focus on what the kids are interested in. In this case, they'd focus their tour more on weaponry and technology in warfare. I also had someone from the National Association for Interpretation come and speak to my volunteers about reading their audience and creating dynamic tours and field trips that will engage the kids. When it comes to tours or field trips for kids with special needs, I have several co workers and volunteers who have a lot of experience with special ed, so I make sure that I assign those staff and volunteers to those groups.
Issues with chaperones who aren't stepping in while their kids misbehave is also a major problem. We try to make our expectations for our chaperones very clear when they arrive. If they still are not actively supervising, our guides will step in and ask them to please ask their kids to be respectful. If the kids are completely out of line and the chaperones are not helping and have been asked multiple times to supervise their kids, we have a policy that our volunteers and guides can end their field trip at any time. Obviously that is in extreme cases and happens very infrequently, but volunteers (or staff members!) should not have to deal with continuously being disrespected. Museums are fun and it's ok to have fun, but there is a level of respect that kids must learn.
I hope this is helpful and I wish your museum luck! Congratulations on your increase in visitor attendance!
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Jacquelyn Gillaspie
Volunteer Coordinator and Facilitator
First Division Museum at Cantigny
Wheaton IL
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2017 07:29 PM
From: Brittany Wedd
Subject: Training Resources for Volunteers that Interact with Children
Hi Everyone,
I'm looking for modern training materials that I can use at my children's museum for our volunteers. We are seeing an increase in visitor attendance (which is good) but I want our volunteers to have better training on dealing with children who are disruptive/misbehaving and also with children who have special needs.
Also, any advice on how to handle issues with field trips and chaperones who don't supervise their children - I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!
Brittany
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Brittany Wedd
Director of Operations
Discovery Station at Hagerstown, Inc.
Hagerstown MD
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